Does EoD imply that Zojja is currently missing?

[LuckyThirteen.4576]

So, during the introduction to the EoD story Taimi rants about everyone being off doing their own thing, and mentions everyone's specific location/activities except for Zojja.

Catching up with Taimi:

Taimi: Gang's back together, huh? I mean, not the whole gang, obviously. Rytlock. Kas and Jory.

Caithe: Taimi

Taimi: Braham's at the lodge. Logan's back in Kryta. Canach is with Sayida, Zafirah with the Zaishen

Caithe: Taimi!

Taimi: Garm is with Braham; Eir and Snaff are dead; I don't know where the heck Zojja is!

Commander: Taimi. I'll get Gorrik.It's going to be okay.

Taimi: I know.

 

The last specific mention of Zojja's whereabouts was at the beginning of LWS3, where she can be seen lying in a coma following her ordeal with Mordremoth. If this was still the case, there's no reasonable way Taimi wouldn't be aware of it;  so why not say that instead of stating that she doesn't know where Zojja is?

 

Is it possible that Zojja disappeared, or left on her own? Is it possible that she will show up in a future storyline somewhere? If so, why hasn't she seemingly attempted to contact anyone?

[Kalavier.1097]

She wasn't physically see in season 3 IIRC, but there are other Asura who mention she's been addled by the experience.

 

I think Taimi hasn't actively been to Rata Sum that much (reasonable, given how she wants to avoid even seeing Phlunt if possible) and thus is Zojja is in a specialized facility or isolated, Taimi may not have a current status on her?

[Zola.6197]

I felt as if the line was more the writers winking at players who are wondering about Zojja's status, as it has been a fairly hot topic since HoTs.

Of course it could have a double meaning. Perhaps Zojja has disappeared. The notion of Zojja suffering some kind of brain damage was, essentially, gossip we heard in S3 by asuran NPCs. There's no actual evidence of that being true, but it is the only mention we've had about her status until Taimi's line at the beginning of EoDs.

When she comes back (because I feel she will at some point, especially after Taimi's line) it will be interesting to see how the writers explain why we have been out of contact with her for so long, and why we (and everyone else we know) have not mentioned her in the years since HoTs (in and out of game). It's certainly an awkward conundrum that I hope we get sufficient answers for someday.

If she's been in a coma all this time, why have we/others never mentioned it and/or visited her? If she's disappeared, why has that not come up? If one of our close allies really disappeared without a trace, I can't imagine we wouldn't care enough to investigate in the time since.

All in all I'm excited at the prospect of her coming back, period. Maybe she's working with Lyssa, who has affected our memories of her. 😛

The only shred of information I can offer besides the little we do know is that there was a draft of S4E2 (A Bug in the System) where Zojja was kidnapped by the inquest, but they ultimately scrapped the draft because Taimi had just been kidnapped by Joko in S4E1. They were looking for an opportunity to bring her back, but they felt it too repetitive to make the cut back then. Here's to hoping they're still hunting for the chance to sufficiently reintroduce her.

Edited April 22, 2022 by Zola.6197

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

4 hours ago, Zola.6197 said:

I felt as if the line was more the writers winking at players who are wondering about Zojja's status, as it has been a fairly hot topic since HoTs.

That is possible, but the line actually made me remember the dropped storyline for Season 4 Episode 2. Apparently, the original plot would have us find out that Zojja was abducted by the Inquest and rescue her, with Phlunt revealed to be an Inquest cronie (BLEH to that). I wonder if they're planning to keep that storyline, with Zojja being MIA suddenly and that's why she hadn't shown up.

4 hours ago, Zola.6197 said:

All in all I'm excited at the prospect of her coming back, period. Maybe she's working with Lyssa, who has affected our memories of her. 😛

Please, no villainizing the goddess who loved mortals most... Please no more needlessly villainizing the good gods into manchild behavior patterns... I am still saddened by Balthazar being villainized pointlessly when both we had Menzies and Dhuum, and IBS/EoD ended up making the whole point of antagonizing Balthazar moot.

Balthazar died for committing a crime the Commander does on a regular basis: identity theft. 😢

[Eekasqueak.7850]

I still don't understand why a god of *war* is surprising to be found out to be bad, maybe I'm too used to ones like in classical mythology kinda being awful. 

5 hours ago, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

That is possible, but the line actually made me remember the dropped storyline for Season 4 Episode 2. Apparently, the original plot would have us find out that Zojja was abducted by the Inquest and rescue her, with Phlunt revealed to be an Inquest cronie (BLEH to that). I wonder if they're planning to keep that storyline, with Zojja being MIA suddenly and that's why she hadn't shown up.

Please, no villainizing the goddess who loved mortals most... Please no more needlessly villainizing the good gods into manchild behavior patterns... I am still saddened by Balthazar being villainized pointlessly when both we had Menzies and Dhuum, and IBS/EoD ended up making the whole point of antagonizing Balthazar moot.

Balthazar died for committing a crime the Commander does on a regular basis: identity theft. 😢

 

[Zola.6197]

6 hours ago, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

Please, no villainizing the goddess who loved mortals most... Please no more needlessly villainizing the good gods into manchild behavior patterns... I am still saddened by Balthazar being villainized pointlessly when both we had Menzies and Dhuum, and IBS/EoD ended up making the whole point of antagonizing Balthazar moot.

Balthazar died for committing a crime the Commander does on a regular basis: identity theft. 😢

I agree the Balthazar stuff feels especially pointless in retrospect. I was never into the reveal that Lazarus was Balthazar in disguise, and that he had gone mad with vengeance and lost his care for humanity. I’d also like Lyssa and the remaining gods to be our allies, and I thought using the phrase “working with Lyssa” implied that Zojja was there willingly/under friendly terms being veiled by her. I was being facetious with the comment anyway since people like to attach Lyssa to everything. 😛

The last thing I want is an evil Lyssa that goes the route of Balthazar. I could probably live with it if she just hates the player character specifically for killing Balthazar as the Vision description implies, but even that’s… meh.

I’m a little underwhelmed by the notion of Zojja retuning as a kidnapping victim, but it’d depend on the specifics of the story. Would be a good chance to bring Kuda back if it’s the inquest, but honestly the idea could tie into any faction that needs an asuran genius by force if necessary.

 

 

Edited April 22, 2022 by Zola.6197

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

15 hours ago, Eekasqueak.7850 said:

I still don't understand why a god of *war* is surprising to be found out to be bad, maybe I'm too used to ones like in classical mythology kinda being awful.

Fun fact: not all "war gods" in classical mythology are viewed as being awful individuals. Athena, as a prime example. In fact, it's a pretty heavily post-WWII cultural view that "war is evil in every way", which got heavier with the wars in the middle east the past few decades, and you'll find a lot fewer cases of "this is tied to war so therefore it's bad" existing pre-WWII literature and mythology (not that such is non-existent, just not common).

 

That said, in GW1, with the exception of one situation of anger management issues (which only paints Balthazar as flawed not evil or self-serving), everything about Balthazar is that he was a good individual; "honorable combat", "defend the innocent", "praising strategy", and "avoid the folly of pride" being his primary teachings. That's why Menzies, who's focus is on deception, betrayal, and dishonorable deeds is Balthazar's antithesis.

To use classical Greek mythology: he was depicted in a similar manner as to Athena, the goddess of tactics and strategy, the "good side" of war, as opposed to Ares, the god of bloodshed, the "bad side" of war. But GW2 flips this and makes him a full on Ares parallel, with the only reference to any of his "good qualities" being in S3E5 where he proclaims "I have learned there is no honor in war" (which I'd disagree with, in all honesty, but again this is reflecting the modern typical cultural view of war).

[Eekasqueak.7850]

21 minutes ago, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

Fun fact: not all "war gods" in classical mythology are viewed as being awful individuals. Athena, as a prime example. In fact, it's a pretty heavily post-WWII cultural view that "war is evil in every way", which got heavier with the wars in the middle east the past few decades, and you'll find a lot fewer cases of "this is tied to war so therefore it's bad" existing pre-WWII literature and mythology (not that such is non-existent, just not common).

 

That said, in GW1, with the exception of one situation of anger management issues (which only paints Balthazar as flawed not evil or self-serving), everything about Balthazar is that he was a good individual; "honorable combat", "defend the innocent", "praising strategy", and "avoid the folly of pride" being his primary teachings. That's why Menzies, who's focus is on deception, betrayal, and dishonorable deeds is Balthazar's antithesis.

To use classical Greek mythology: he was depicted in a similar manner as to Athena, the goddess of tactics and strategy, the "good side" of war, as opposed to Ares, the god of bloodshed, the "bad side" of war. But GW2 flips this and makes him a full on Ares parallel, with the only reference to any of his "good qualities" being in S3E5 where he proclaims "I have learned there is no honor in war" (which I'd disagree with, in all honesty, but again this is reflecting the modern typical cultural view of war).

I dunno Athena's done plenty of pretty petty things too like arachnae and Medusa were her doing IIRC, Greek mythology tends to be a bad example because all of the gods in it are kinda not great people. 

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

4 minutes ago, Eekasqueak.7850 said:

I dunno Athena's done plenty of pretty petty things too like arachnae and Medusa were her doing IIRC, Greek mythology tends to be a bad example because all of the gods in it are kinda not great people. 

Well, those are Roman stories, not Greek. 😉 Ovid was Roman and Romans do have an established history of hating Greeks - Ovid also has some more political agenda stuff going on, too. Always interesting to see how mythologies change with the poets.

Medusa is actually a rather curious situation because she has multiple story origins and only a few of them paint Athena in negative light (and even those stories have "good girl Athena" interpretations).

But yes, I do get your point. One of the key things about the Greek gods is that unlike many modern (*coughDisneycough*) reinterpretation of the Greek gods, they were not meant to be "the good guys" - a notion that mostly comes from the spread of Christianity-flavored "god is good"ness after they got over their whole "every other religion is the work of the devil and/or misunderstanding of God" phase of forcible conversions... -ahem- but were rather just as equally flawed as humans in various means.

But excluding some Roman poets with a penchant of paralleling divine figures to criticize political ruler, in general Athena was viewed in as much good light as any other Greek god was.

 

Which is kind of beside my point - the gods in GW1 were indeed flawed, but they were still on the "good guy" side of the moral scale, and it just doesn't really mesh with GW1's depictions, even if they were human-centric views, of Balthazar when he goes and proclaims "who cares if all life on Tyria dies out, I need my battle fix and will kill the Elder Dragons and all that get in my way because I haven't fought anyone since Abaddon" (to paraphrase dev and in-game explanations for why he went evil before being stripped of powers, which oddly ignored the very existence of Menzies). A god guy who promotes defending of innocents and avoiding pride and hubris this does not fit.

[Gorani.7205]

On 4/22/2022 at 5:34 AM, LuckyThirteen.4576 said:

So, during the introduction to the EoD story Taimi rants about everyone being off doing their own thing, and mentions everyone's specific location/activities except for Zojja.

 

Sometimes the most obvious answer is the most likely: Anet does not want to replace voice actors of iconic main NPCs and Felicia Day is just not available any more (at least she was shortly after 2017, when she took a break from most of her work). Zojia was replaced by another quirky Asura (Taimi) and that new NPCs fills all the roles and spots Zojia had before.

There is no mystery or conspiracy about it.

[Eekasqueak.7850]

25 minutes ago, Gorani.7205 said:

 

Sometimes the most obvious answer is the most likely: Anet does not want to replace voice actors of iconic main NPCs and Felicia Day is just not available any more (at least she was shortly after 2017, when she took a break from most of her work). Zojia was replaced by another quirky Asura (Taimi) and that new NPCs fills all the roles and spots Zojia had before.

There is no mystery or conspiracy about it.

They replaced Canach though. 

[Fueki.4753]

On 4/22/2022 at 4:28 PM, Eekasqueak.7850 said:

I still don't understand why a god of *war* is surprising to be found out to be bad, maybe I'm too used to ones like in classical mythology kinda being awful. 

 

Given that he was the patron god of Monks' Protection Prayers, killing unrelated and harmless people does seem weird though.

Arenanet reducing him to little more than a bag of rage and fire doesn't do justice to his lore representation either.

Edited April 23, 2022 by Fueki.4753

[TheOrlyFactor.8341]

Honestly, I have zero confidence in Anet bringing Zojja back in a way that I feel would be believable to the character. She's been gone for so long that if they did decide to bring her back, it would cause more dissatisfaction than anything else.

 

I think the best thing to do at this point is to just let the players who do care about Zojja headcanon what's going on with her, which I feel like the line in EoD about her being missing encourages that. It's far less restrictive than the LWS3E1 hearsay in Rata Novus we've had to work with for years.

[Fenom.9457]

I hope so, that would be so interesting if we found out she’s woken up at some point and just left, nobody knows where she went 

[Ashantara.8731]

I took Taimi's remark as a humorous side blow at the playerbase's speculations -- people have been wondering about Zojja for six years now. I wouldn't give too much weight to that comment as there is a lot of self-irony in EoD.

[Kalavier.1097]

5 hours ago, Ashantara.8731 said:

I took Taimi's remark as a humorous side blow at the playerbase's speculations -- people have been wondering about Zojja for six years now. I wouldn't give too much weight to that comment as there is a lot of self-irony in EoD.

And it's a fitting comment. Taimi's been busy as hell with dragon research and other stuff, so likely hasn't been able to check in on Zojja at all.

[Poormany.4507]

There was also Caithe (I think) yelling "For Snaff, for Eir!" during the final boss in EoD. No mention of Zojja, again implying she's still alive and possibly even in a recovering state (I would think if she was in a permanent coma or something, she'd be getting avenged as well). Felt kind of like Balthazar cursing all the Gods but Lyssa at the end of PoF tbh, which the devs have implied is deliberate and that story is not yet complete. These similar small nods to Zojja kind of make be think she'll be brought back at some point, possibly soon.

Edited April 28, 2022 by Poormany.4507

[garpu.6210]

I'm wondering if we'll get the asura trying to retake their underground areas in a living world and Zojja's part of it? With Primorius gone, the destroyers aren't as big a threat, correct?

[Kalavier.1097]

12 hours ago, garpu.6210 said:

I'm wondering if we'll get the asura trying to retake their underground areas in a living world and Zojja's part of it? With Primorius gone, the destroyers aren't as big a threat, correct?

Despite possible map issues, I could see them trying to map out the tunnels again, as well as the Skritt and Dredge maybe.

The dwarves probably have the most updated maps lol. I'm unsure if much of anything would be left of their old cities however. There is a possibility the magic would be drained and the destroyers move on.

[Pax.3548]

On 4/23/2022 at 2:16 AM, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

That said, in GW1, with the exception of one situation of anger management issues (which only paints Balthazar as flawed not evil or self-serving), everything about Balthazar is that he was a good individual; "honorable combat", "defend the innocent", "praising strategy", and "avoid the folly of pride" being his primary teachings.

Not this again 🤦‍♂️

In Gw1 not once did I feel Balth was a good individual, he was a god of war, good or evil doesn't apply to him and never once did we saw or heard him directly to be able to judge his character directly

 

Don't go saying these stuff as a fact simply because you believe it to be so

[Fueki.4753]

1 minute ago, Pax.3548 said:

In Gw1 not once did I feel Balth was a good individual, he was a god of war, good or evil doesn't apply to him and never once did we saw or heard him directly to be able to judge his character directly

That's the point of the biggest chunk of lore - you don't see or interact with most of it. In principle, the human pantheon is modelled mostly after Greek/Roman gods, so they are neither good nor evil, but actually flawed. Balthazar has been depicted as a defender of people and has been a strong advocate for his personal kind of honour. Never once had GW1 portrayed him as the bag of rage and destruction that Arenanet turned him into for PoF. Sure, he had his fits of anger here and there, but literally everyone does. Even Athena, the Greek goddess of War and Wisdom, whom is the closest to Balthazar's depiction in GW1, had fits of anger (like when she punished Medusa, despite Perseus and his uncontrollable groin being at fault).

You are free to ignore his lore depiction of the original game, if you wish so, but that makes you only view a small part of the bigger picture.

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

2 hours ago, Pax.3548 said:

Not this again 🤦‍♂️

In Gw1 not once did I feel Balth was a good individual, he was a god of war, good or evil doesn't apply to him and never once did we saw or heard him directly to be able to judge his character directly

 

Don't go saying these stuff as a fact simply because you believe it to be so

Guess everything we are told about everything that we don't see firsthand in visuals is therefore "simply because I believe it to be so". 🤷‍♂️

Except that's not how lore works. Second-hand accounts are still counted as canon lore, it is not head-canon or "simply because you believe it to be so" to treat those second-hand accounts as lore. And while second-hand accounts could prove to be wrong (as they have), or third-hand etc, while first-hand cannot, there were dozens of separate such second-hand accounts, and in such scenarios every one of those accounts being false becomes exceedingly unlikely).

Just because you didn't pay attention to, missed, or pretended the lore didn't exist, doesn't mean that was the case.

And the thing is, if we just dismiss all second-hand accounts because "never once do we see or hear it directly", then we can toss out over 90% of the franchise's lore, including some of the most recent stuff like Soo-Won creating the world from the Void.

 

It is a fact that GW1 depicts him in a certain light. And it is a fact that GW2 depicts him in a different light. Whether you like the change of depiction or not is what's subjective, not how he was depicted.

 

And now here's the thing: even GW2 lore suggests that Balthazar's personality inexplicably changed. Not just between pre-fall and post-fall, but also from gw1 era to gw2 era. One such situation off the top of my head is Requiem: Zafirah short story, where Zafirah states in her little monologue:

Quote

But something was wrong. He stood before me, tall and imposing, power radiating from his physical form...but this power was different from what I had felt all those years before. His voice dissonant from the one I heard within me.

Some do take this to interpret that what she felt before wasn't Balthazar, but Balthazar's implied replacement. It can go either way, honestly, so not the best example, just the one that I can think of off the top of my head.

Edited April 29, 2022 by Konig Des Todes.2086

[Pax.3548]

17 hours ago, Konig Des Todes.2086 said:

Guess everything we are told about everything that we don't see firsthand in visuals is therefore "simply because I believe it to be so". 🤷‍♂️

Except that's not how lore works. Second-hand accounts are still counted as canon lore, it is not head-canon or "simply because you believe it to be so" to treat those second-hand accounts as lore. And while second-hand accounts could prove to be wrong (as they have), or third-hand etc, while first-hand cannot, there were dozens of separate such second-hand accounts, and in such scenarios every one of those accounts being false becomes exceedingly unlikely).

 

Just because you didn't pay attention to, missed, or pretended the lore didn't exist, doesn't mean that was the case.

The problem with this is that it makes you interpretation biased. I'll use an analogy to try and explain why assuming these things as facts (which is the point of my post, you can believe, you can guess, you can think, but you can't claim it as a fact if its not solidly proven) can misguide one's preconception and refuse variations on that idea when evidence on the contrary begins to surface .

 

I'm gonna make it short and I'm not a native colombian so I might be wrong on some stuff.

 

Pablo Escobar, everybody knows who this guy was, this man invested on his neighborhood (Or was on his native city I don't remember) everyone there loved him, he built houses, schools, parks, etc, he made ppl's lives there better, while everyone outside this circle of followers saw him as the devil he was. Up to this day there are still some that think this guy was good, honorable, etc. despite all the violent accounts on his head. What happens if you only heard or read about Pablo Escobar from ppl that followed/loved him? what is your interpretation of him going to be? that he was good. And once you start learning the bad stuff still its likely you're gonna keep believing he was good, despite a few bad deeds, because you have already established the fact on your mind, that Pablo was good. Well, this is what I feel is going on with Balth for some with their posts (including you).

 

Bathazar was the god of war, the HUMAN god of war, to many/most humans, he was a good god, honorable, good intentioned, etc, but what of everyone else? what about the charr, centaurs, or humans who wronged or were on his way? those who were probably displaced/hit hard by this god and his followers during humanity's expansion. Even if Balth was good to some, did that make him a good god? In my opinion, no, he was the god of war, he loved a good battle, the killing, the conquering, destruction of his foes, while his followers obviously are going to paint the best picture about him because thats what followers do (the same with the white mantle and their unseen gods/mursaat, or that npc that began preaching about abaddon at Siren's Landing).

 

 

So, you can read about Balth, but you must be cautious about believing everything you read/heard, because without firsthand experience, the real person (or god in this case) will probably not be like the one on your head, and one must be especially be cautious in establishing secondhand accounts as facts when there are evidence that counter this like, you know, when he injustly killed someone who won fairly in a game (you say it was just one, but hey, I guess one person's life doesn't count in ruining a god's good reputation eh), and was about to slaughter a village just because a breach of etiquette, you can bet there must be more accounts like this in the world that we don't know of.

 

Knowing all this, is it really strange that he got restless because he didn't get to take part in the fight against abaddon, while during the next great threat the rest of the gods chose to turn tail and run, betrayed him, stripped him of his godhood, and chained him for centuries at the mist all alone, why, it is unfathomable someone like that could turn bitter and bad right? (sarcasm mode very on if you don't get it).

[Pax.3548]

22 hours ago, Fueki.4753 said:

That's the point of the biggest chunk of lore - you don't see or interact with most of it. In principle, the human pantheon is modelled mostly after Greek/Roman gods, so they are neither good nor evil, but actually flawed.

Flawed, thats the word that could perfectly define him, but I'm against establishing as a fact that he was a good guy (I'm not saying he was evil neither), Konig is free to think and say so, but I will be there to contradict him, because that is not a fact, its his perception, and telling new ppl or players that didn't play gw1 this like that will only mislead their idea of Balthazar, thinking that he was good and that Anet out of nowhere made him evil (which I'm pretty sure many will claim, despite the clues given to us in gw1 of his heavily flawed side)

[Konig Des Todes.2086]

53 minutes ago, Pax.3548 said:

Flawed, thats the word that could perfectly define him, but I'm against establishing as a fact that he was a good guy (I'm not saying he was evil neither), Konig is free to think and say so, but I will be there to contradict him, because that is not a fact, its his perception, and telling new ppl or players that didn't play gw1 this like that will only mislead their idea of Balthazar, thinking that he was good and that Anet out of nowhere made him evil (which I'm pretty sure many will claim, despite the clues given to us in gw1 of his heavily flawed side)

Let me clarify, that I never once deny Balthazar is flawed. In fact, I promote this. But "flawed" != "not good". Nor am I trying to proclaim that Balthazar was a paragon of virtue and benevolence. He very much wasn't - after all, he was a flawed being.

But Balthazar's teachings, and how he was depicted in GW1, are very much on the 'good' side of the good-evil spectrum in the grand scale, and he was most certainly NOT depicted as:

Balthazar: Cowards. You may flee, but I will not. I do not avoid conflict... I am conflict.

Balthazar: The Elder Dragons will die by my hands...and their power will become my power.

Balthazar: If you won't join the fight against the dragons, I'll see you all burn with them!

Balthazar: Cowards! ALL OF YOU!

Or:

Likewise, Balth the god of war had been more or less idle since the Exodus, with very little in the way of human contact or terrestrial combat. He's a fiery god of action and he was champing at the bit for the chance to do what he was born to do (as he sees it).

Which, I must point out, are his pre-fall proclamations and attitudes. And this is vastly different from his GW1 depiction. Plus that comment blatantly disregards the entire conflict against Menzies.

1 hour ago, Pax.3548 said:

Bathazar was the god of war, the HUMAN god of war, to many/most humans, he was a good god, honorable, good intentioned, etc, but what of everyone else? what about the charr, centaurs, or humans who wronged or were on his way?

We actually see several non-humans revering Balthazar in GW1, particularly centaurs who are typically a race that reveres and worships the earth, but also some asuran view on him. It wasn't until GW2 where he became the "bloodthirsty, battlecrazed god" or the one promoting humanity's expansion.

1 hour ago, Pax.3548 said:

In my opinion, no, he was the god of war, he loved a good battle, the killing, the conquering, destruction of his foes, while his followers obviously are going to paint the best picture about him because thats what followers do (the same with the white mantle and their unseen gods/mursaat, or that npc that began preaching about abaddon at Siren's Landing).

The thing is, "he loved a good battle, the killing, the conquering, destruction of his foes" wasn't really thing until Season 3. The closest we get is the super ambiguous story of him carrying his father's head when arriving on the world (which can easily be interpreted as being a moment of showing off crude conquest, or be a moment of solace as he mourns the loss of his father - thre is no context provided to know what direction was intended), and him leading the conquest of humans across Tyria after discussion among the Six where only Dwayna and Melandru prompted peace (meaning that Balthazar was 1/4th the "issue", next to Dhuum and Abaddon and, curiously, Lyssa). In other words: anything negative towards Balthazar and him being parallel of Ares comes solely from GW2, and mainly from Season 3 and Path of Fire or as interpretation bias.

In the context of GW2, I agree with you: he was not a good god. But that's my point: the context of GW1 and the context of GW2 are vastly different. One depicts a flawed god of honorable battle who is against pride and prejudice; the other depicts a battle crazed lunatic who's only interest is spreading conflict. If you cut out everything from GW2, then you lose everything that depicts or suggests Balthazar "loved a good battle, the killing, the conquering, destruction of his foes".